WASHINGTON — The attorney general for Washington, D.C. has filed a civil lawsuit against the Washington Commanders, team owner Daniel Snyder, the National Football League and commissioner Roger Goodell for allegedly colluding to deceive fans and district residents about the league’s investigation into the team’s toxic workplace culture and allegations of sexual assault in an effort to maintain a strong fanbase and to increase profits.
Attorney General Karl Racine (D-D.C.) said his office was suing “because you can’t lie to D.C. residents in order to protect your image and profits and get away with it. No matter who you are.” Racine then added, “Even if you’re the National Football League.”
Racine said his office opened its investigation last fall and plans to subpoena Snyder as well as former employees, promising accountability and transparency as the case moves through the court system.
“We will issue subpoenas,” Racine said. “We will seek testimony under oath.”
Racine took a shot at Snyder’s virtual deposition with the U.S. House Reform and Oversight Committee by saying depositions are “not likely to occur on a yacht but in a conference room in the District of Columbia.”
Racine alleged that while the league and the team publicly promised an independent investigation, “Snyder waged an interference campaign to cover up years of harassment” and that “the NFL let him do it, betraying fans’ trust by enabling Snyder to have a say at the end of the investigation into him and the Commanders.”
Racine said his office has jurisdiction to sue because the District of Columbia’s consumer protection law is broad and covers any material misstatement that a business or merchant makes that could impact consumers in the district. He said the district is filing a civil complaint because his office does not have criminal jurisdiction on the matter.
“For years, the team and its owner have caused very real and very serious harm and then lied about it to dodge accountability,” Racine said. “They did all of this to hide the truth, protect their images and let the profits continue to roll.”
While not specifying the damages he’s seeking, Racine said the law provides for fines of up to $5,000 per lie.
Racine is leaving office in January but said he believes his successor Brian Schwalb, also a democrat, will continue the investigation. He also said if the Snyders decide to sell the team, the investigation would continue because the allegations occurred when Snyder was owner.
Four posters flanked Racine during his announcement, outlining some of the history of the team’s rebranding efforts that included references to D.C. and its flag and the history of the NFL’s investigation into the organization’s workplace culture.
“Dan Snyder assured fans that he would fully cooperate with the investigation and the results could be trusted,” one of the posters read. “That was a lie: He repeatedly attempted to interfere, and the fans could not trust results that were never made public. Because Snyder had a veto.”
Snyder and the Commanders have been under investigation for the last two years by multiple government agencies relating to allegations of a toxic workplace culture and sexual harassment under Snyder’s ownership the last 20 years, including an investigation by the House Oversight Committee after the NFL did not release the findings of a report compiled by lawyer Beth Wilkinson, which Racine characterized as “a so-called independent investigation.”
The findings of Wilkinson’s investigation were not released in July 2021, when the league fined the team $10 million for having a toxic workplace culture. The final poster read: “Fans’ outrage intensified when it became clear that Snyder lied to them: There would be no transparency and no reckoning. That impacted consumer spending decisions.”
Asked about a parallel review into the team’s finances and withholding money from season-ticket holders, Racine said, “There’ll be more news on that next week.”
Racine’s office launched an investigation into the team around the time the House Oversight Committee referred its case, which initially centered on workplace culture issues, to the Federal Trade Commission for potential financial improprieties.
Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, lawyers who have been representing more than 40 former employees who have made allegations against the franchise, said in a statement that the civil complaint “is further evidence of what we’ve long known: that both the Commanders and the NFL have engaged in deception and lies designed to conceal the team’s decades of sexual harassment and abuse, which has impacted not only the victims of that abuse, but also consumers in the District of Columbia” and validates “the experiences of the brave women and men who came forward and in achieving, for the first time, a level of transparency into the scope of the misconduct.”
The team did not immediately respond for a request for comment following Racine’s announcement, but in anticipation of news conference, a team spokesperson issued a statement to the media Wednesday night: “As recently as Monday, a lawyer for the team met with the AG who did not suggest at that time that he intended to take any action and, in fact, revealed fundamental misunderstandings of the underlying facts. It is unfortunate that, in his final days in office, Mr. Racine appears more interested in making splashy headlines, based on offbeat legal theories, rather than doing the hard work of making the streets safe for our citizens, including bringing to justice the people who shot one of our players.”
The statement also made reference to the team’s running back Brian Robinson, who in August was shot twice in the right leg during a robbery attempt while going to a restaurant in D.C.
“Less than three months ago, a 23-year-old player on our team was shot multiple times, in broad daylight,” the statement began. “Despite the out-of-control violent crime in DC, today the Washington Commanders learned for the first time on Twitter that the D.C. Attorney General will be holding a press conference to ‘make a major announcement’ related to the organization tomorrow.”
Robinson needed surgery, but he did not suffer any internal damage and was able to play in a game six weeks later, becoming a feel-good story for the franchise.
Robinson’s agent, Ryan Williams, was unaware of Robinson’s inclusion in the statement until it became public.
“Up until an hour ago, the Commanders handled the Brian Robinson situation with so much care, sincerity and class,” Williams wrote in a tweet. “And I was so grateful for all of it. Although I know that there are some great humans in that building, whoever is hiding behind this statement is not one of them.”
Commanders president Jason Wright later said that the statement “expressed our external counsel’s ongoing frustration with the Attorney General’s office, as they have been nothing but earnest and transparent in their communications with his team.”
Wright noted in his statement that the lawyers’ frustrations “should have been separate and apart from referencing the terrible crime that affected our player.”
When asked about the team’s comments, Racine responded on Thursday, “It’s customary for bullies to bully even public servants. It wasn’t surprising.”
Racine noted the amount of public outrage following the team’s comments, saying, “I knew that the public would catch our back, and boy oh boy on social media did the public catch our back. What Mr. Snyder sought to do is deflect attention from his own misconduct and impute motivation and intention to someone else, here the AG and the victim, and otherwise burn the bridge and trash the city.”
The team is being investigated on several fronts, including by the attorneys general of D.C. and Virginia, Congress and the league. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy last week said former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White’s review on behalf of the league is ongoing and there is no timetable for when it will be completed.
The Snyders announced last week they hired Bank of America Securities to look into selling part or all of the team. A team spokesperson said they were “exploring all options” in regards to the organization that Forbes values at $5.6 billion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.